Although metal 3D printing technology has a lot of room for development in the manufacturing industry, there are still many problems that hinder its widespread use. In addition to the high cost of metal 3D printers , there is a big problem with print repeatability and quality control, especially when it comes to powder bed processes like direct metal laser sintering (DMLS). To stand out. During the printing process, the printer operator or engineer may have to print multiple times to get the final desired result due to the layout of the part support structure and the variation caused by reducing its residual pressure.
As a result, many companies are working hard to control the printing environment to produce high-quality parts reliably and reproducibly, one of which is Sigma Labs, founded by former staff at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The company has been developing quality control hardware and quality control software for the powder bed metal 3D printing process.
As a member of America Makes, the official 3D printing innovation research organization in the United States, Sigma Labs has been collaborating with leading companies in defense and aerospace manufacturing, such as GE and Honeywell, for high-level 3D printing projects. GE and Honeywell have begun testing Sigma Labs' proprietary Process Quality Assurance (IPQA) software on their own internal machines.
“With the joint efforts of Boeing, our quality assurance software was finally put into use. Six years ago, Boeing was conducting titanium alloy linear friction welding for their 787 Dreamliner. At that time, the technology we developed for Boeing formed the quality assurance today. "The quality assurance software," said Mark Cola, CEO of Sigma Labs. "We have been developing this software with Boeing for many years, but it has been applied to different manufacturing processes."
Quality assurance software developed by Sigma Labs can be applied to many manufacturing processes, including other forms of 3D printing.
In fact, Cola said that Sigma Labs has successfully implemented PrintRite3D on Arcam's electron beam fusion 3D printing technology, but now Sigma Labs' development focus is on DMLS.
Currently, PrintRite3D consists of three cloud software modules (INSPECT, CONTOUR, and ANALYTICS) and a hardware package (SENSORPAK). The hardware package can be used separately by Sigma Labs.
SENSORPAK includes a series of sensors and a computer interface integrated into the 3D printer to monitor the printing process.
The INSPECT module monitors the temperature of the 3D printer's print compartment to provide operational metallurgical data.
The CONTOUR module processes the visualization data of the part to provide geometric information about the part.
The ANALYTICS module, still under development, links all the information from multiple machines and multiple parts to instantly provide global printing, product and printer data for a single company.
The PrintRite3D workflow first allows SENSORPAK to collect a large amount of thermal history data and imaging data during the printing process, and then perform data restoration, which will send the data to the cloud application upon completion. After the cloud application receives the data, it will process it and then transfer the data to the machine operator. The operator determines the print quality during the printing process accordingly.
The INSPECT module and the CONTOUR module provide many of the necessary process quality assurance, especially for the metallurgical and geometric data of the printed object. Machine operators can also work with Sigma Labs to determine a standard printing and printing process for each material and for each part. Thus, during the printing process, the print object has a reference standard to ensure that the part being printed is qualified.
“When printing, you need a way to make sure that the object being printed is in line with the design intent.†Cola points out, “This approach is to set a standard, and this standard will never change, everything else will be When designing a model, you use our sensors and software applications to develop a standard, and then use our database to archive this standard; when you are testing a product, you will continue to refer to this standard.
Quality assurance is necessary in 3D printing. Before printing the final part, the design will first undergo multiple trials and error tests, and the machine operator will determine the print parameters. However, quality assurance methods for determining whether a part is up to standard are often expensive, time consuming, and even damaging.
These methods include destructive testing in which the operator destroys the part to measure its physical properties and how it withstands various pressures; of course, non-destructive testing techniques such as X-ray or ultrasonic testing. Destructive testing is thorough, and non-destructive testing may not be able to examine complex internal geometries that make 3D printing so valuable.
“Companies generally use computed tomography,†Cola said. “You can imagine how costly it is. For those very complex designs, we have some customers who spend $4 to $6 for every dollar they spend on making parts. Checking it to make sure the parts are correct is too costly. Therefore, they very much hope that manufacturing and inspection can be done at the same time."
Cola pointed out that IPQA is a more efficient way to determine part quality and check that parts are up to standard, and the cost may be lower. As 3D printing users become more confident in this technology, IPQA can begin to replace some of the quality assurance methods that are inspected after the part has been printed.
Marc Labs CEO Mark Cola
The manufacturing company that recently adopted Sigma Labs' IPQA system is Woodward. Woodward supplies fuel circuits and fuel nozzles to aerospace manufacturers such as GE, Pratt & Whitney, Rolls Royce and Honeywell.
Cola explained, "This fall, Woodward will install their first internal metal 3D printer. They want to install our quality assurance software on the first day of the machine." Currently, Woodward has joined Sigma Labs. In the Early Adopter Program, Woodward will evaluate the software modules for PrintRite3D. To this end, Woodward will install PrintRite3D on a new EOS M290 3D printer.
Sigma Labs continues to work with the company to improve its products while expanding its impact. In addition to the above airlines, it is working with 3D printer manufacturers such as EOS and Trumpf to apply PrintRite3D directly to their machines. On the software side, Sigma Labs is already working with Materialise to embed PrintRite3D directly into Materialise's 3D printing automation and control system Streamics.
Sigma Labs is also currently working with 3DSIM, another company in the field of quality control, to develop joint products. Cola said that 3DSIM is dedicated to the front end of quality control, while Sigma Labs, on the other hand, focuses on the back end, the quality assurance and statistical control in the printing process.
What Cola really wants to achieve is a process quality control mechanism, a closed loop feedback loop to correct the printing process. In order to get a closed-loop feedback loop, Cola believes that process monitoring and data acquisition should be established first.
Working with all of these companies, Sigma Labs has integrated its solutions into every aspect of the 3D printing industry, from end users such as GE to manufacturers such as EOS and software developers like Materialise. In order to achieve a complete closed loop, Cola said that Sigma Labs has also set up a 3D printing service department. In this department, Sigma Labs can work with customers to design, test, print parts and ensure compliance. Customers can internalize PrintRite3D into a third-party service department or have Sigma Labs print parts for them in 3D.
In the end, Cola saw that IPQA was not only applied to the 3D printing industry, but also applied to other manufacturing areas. He explained, "With the rise of the Industrial Internet of Things, all these manufacturing machines need an edge computer. It may be our SENSORPAK, but there may be different sensors inside, because this is a different process."
In other words, in the near future, PrintRite3D may improve 3D printing. But in the long run, similar process quality assurance techniques can be applied to all types of advanced manufacturing equipment.
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